The Cutting Edge: Home Technology Blog

Denon is right....Integration companies like ours have been asking them to build a multisource / multizone amplifier for whole home music. We have also been asking the same from Sonos. Looks like Denon will be the first to bring one to the market.

Here is a sneak peak of the "HEOS Drive." Looks like we can expect 70 Watts of Class D amplification per speaker and all sorts of "Inputs" for sources besides all of the streaming features which are already part of the HEOS ecosystem. In addition to the high power amplifier, each zone will have a Subwoofer output and a high pass / low pass filter. Coupling a 70 watt zone with a good set of speakers and a subwoofer is undoubtedly going to provide an amazing sounding room.

The HEOS Drive solves certain integration problems and will provide an easy to use (app based) end user experience. Hopefully it will work seamlessly with Denon's AVR surround receivers. The appearance is certainly impressive....a great looking amplifier. And the device appears to have plenty of power and flexibility built in.

We are hearing $2,499 retail price for the unit. They certainly priced it at the higher end of the scale....$625 per room and we haven't added speakers yet. But we expect the build quality and performance to be consistent with the Denon brand....very, very good. And since the feature set in a single chassis unit is unprecedented....we predict a successful product for them.

Can't wait to get our hands on one. They say an "Official Launch" is coming very soon.